Creating a New Finger

The idea was to create a simple REST API that could be used to lookup a person and get “plan” information about them in text, markdown, JSON, or even HTML. I wanted something that could be embeded in documents, blogs, or even linked to in a tweet. I also was hoping to piggy-back off something that not only already existed, but was ubiquitous…

GitHub is where the (programming) world works today, and its open API provides exactly what I need to create a new, modern version of this useful tool that would provide:

You can use this to look up the information on any GitHub user. If that user also has a .plan repository, then the repository’s README and issues (as a list of what that user is currently working on) will also be shown.